The present invention relates to an image forming apparatus, such as a copying machine, a printer, and a facsimile, in particular to a waste toner box and a sheet tray in detail.
Conventionally, in the image forming apparatus which has a series of electronic photograph processes, toner remaining on an image carrying member is removed by a cleaning member, such as a cleaning blade, and is accommodated in a waste toner box provided under the cleaning member. Moreover, in order to reduce a dead space in an apparatus and to make a maintenance work easy, it has been well known to structure the apparatus such that a waste toner box is arranged to adjoin beside a sheet tray accommodating section, and the sheet tray and the waste toner box are attached or detached from the same direction.
In the above-mentioned structures, at the time of attaching or detaching the above-mentioned waste toner box, when a discharging port of a conveying passage to convey waste toner from the cleaning member to the waste toner box is separated from a joint port of the waste toner box, there has been problems that waste toner scatters from the discharging port and the joint port and pollutes the circumference.
For the above-mentioned problem, there has been disclosed an apparatus in which a waste toner box is arranged at a side of a sheet tray accommodating section provided under the main body of the apparatus so as to accommodate the sheet tray and a joint section between a waste toner conveying means and a relay duct is displaced from the top of the sheet tray (for example, refer to Patent document 1).
Further, there has been disclosed a waste toner recovery apparatus in which a waste toner box is arranged at a side of a sheet tray accommodating section to accommodate a sheet tray to store sheets and there is provided a forcibly conveying means for forcibly conveying waste toner to the waste toner box. At the time of separating a discharging section from the waste toner box, the forcibly conveying means is rotated reversely so as to draw waste toner into a conveying section and to prevent waste toner from scattering to the circumference.
Patent document 1: Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 5-61385
Patent document 2: Japanese Patent Unexamined Publication No. 5-297773
Patent document 1 prevents waste toner from falling while utilizing an empty space in a sheet tray accommodating section effectively. However, it is difficult to prevent waste toner from scattering to the circumference and it is not sufficient to prevent dirt of sheets.
In Patent document 2, it is unable to draw waste toner adhering to a discharging port into the conveying section, and it is not sufficient to prevent scattering of waste toner.
As mentioned above, it is unable to say that it is enough to prevent scattering of waste toner, and also it is unable to say that it is enough to prevent dirt of sheets.
Moreover, a dehumidifying heater is provided to a sheet tray in order to dehumidify sheets. In this structure, heat generated by the dehumidifying heater is transferred to a waste toner box and the heat hardens waste toner in the vicinity of the waste toner box. As a result, the hardened waste toner interferes the fluidity of waste toner at the time of waste toner recovery and makes it difficult to recover waste toner.